Mayor pleads with Minister to reconsider Amsterdam boy's deportation to Armenia

The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, is again attempting to personally appeal to the Minister of Asylum and Migration now that the Council of State has decided that 11-year-old Mikael and his mother can be deported to Armenia. "This is an example of where a rule is far too harsh in an individual case," said Halsema.

Mikael's mother came to the Netherlands from Armenia in 2010. Her asylum request was rejected then, but she stayed in the Netherlands. Mikael was born in Amsterdam and has lived in the Netherlands his whole life. According to the highest administrative court, they have been out of the authorities’ view and under the radar for too long. Therefore, they may not be allowed to remain in the Netherlands, as stated in Wednesday's ruling.

Halsema wrote to then-State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration) in June requesting that the immigration service IND discuss whether Mikael could still receive a residence permit. "Mikael is in the bloom of his life and cannot be the victim of residence laws that may be correct legally but where the human side of things is sometimes forgotten," the mayor wrote.

Halsema said on Wednesday that the minister who has taken over Van Der Burg's portfolio, Marjolein Faber, did not respond to the letter prior to the Council of State's decision. "She wanted to know what the decision was first. I had to tell Mikael this over the last few days. Now that the decision was a negative one, I am calling on her again."

The mayor added that Mikael is an 11-year-old Amsterdammer who belongs with his friends at school. "The wish to have fewer migrants in the Netherlands can never be so strong that it comes at a cost to an 11-year-old boy who knows no other country than the Netherlands."

A spokesperson for Minister Faber has said that the decision does not lie with her but with the IND. Since 2019, the director-general of the IND has been responsible for deciding whether to allow a rejected asylum seeker to remain in the Netherlands due to a dire situation.

Although a state secretary or minister is politically responsible for the agency, they no longer have so-called discretionary powers, as was the case until then.

A minister was allowed to deviate from their own policy at the time and had to make a final decision, which sometimes caused a lot of (public) commotion and political tension. Often, it concerned children who had been in the Netherlands for a long time, had taken root here, and were just outside the children's pardon.

This special decision-making power was transferred to the head of the IND under the Rutte-III Cabinet and changed slightly. This means that this clearance does not come into play at the end of the process but after the first rejection.

The change was made after the case of sister and brother Lili and Howick, who were also to be deported to Armenia with their mother, which received a lot of media attention. Shortly before their deportation, the children went into hiding, after which the then State Secretary Mark Harbers granted them a residence permit for safety reasons.